Refugee team soccer stars

By
SARAH DEAN

THE Bhutanese community is kicking all the right goals in a bid to host a national soccer tournament on the Border next year.

The Albury-Wodonga Bhutanese soccer team, Three Star, won the Australian Bhutanese Youth Festival’s third interstate tournament in Sydney and are bidding to host the next cup. Captain Mon Chhetri, centre, with the winning cup, is surrounded by his teammates. Picture: TARA GOONAN

THE Bhutanese community is kicking all the right goals in a bid to host a national soccer tournament on the Border next year.

Three Star Albury- Wodonga won the Australian Bhutanese Interstate Soccer Championship in Sydney last weekend.

The team played five games in a round-robin tournament before being crowned champions.

“We are very proud of our team and we want to share this success with the community,” Albury Bhutanese Association president Teju Chouhan said.

The team is now pushing to host the tournament — part of the Bhutanese Youth Festival — on the Border next year.

“This is a way of giving back to the community where we belong,” Mr Chouhan said.

“This community has given us new life, accepting Bhutanese people and allowing us to resettle here.”

The team formed three years ago and is made up of Bhutanese refugee youth from Albury and Wodonga, who were mostly born and brought up in a refugee camp before being resettled on the Border.